


Jaded Dragon

by BigFoot175



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Family Issues, Gen, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Mental Health Issues, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28978551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigFoot175/pseuds/BigFoot175
Summary: Azula wants to know what it's like being normal.Unfortunately for her, her father is a monster who made her a monster.Azula will always be Azula, and Azula is a monster, but maybe she doesn't have to be.
Relationships: Azula & Iroh (Avatar)
Kudos: 27





	Jaded Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning:  
> Ozai is an abusive parent, and Azula has to deal with the fallout.  
> Ursa took one look at Azula as a child and washed her hands of any parental responsibility, so there's child abandonment issues here as well.  
> Azula is all sorts of messed up inside, and the show really did her dirty by not giving her a chance to heal properly from all this. As you all know, that's completely unsat.

Azula schools her usually haughty expression into something approaching neutrality as she takes a slow sip of tea at the Jade Dragon, a tea shop owned by her uncle.  
Not that Uncle Iroh knows she's there.  
Or, at least, she hopes he doesn't.

After years of waging guerrilla warfare against Zuko, Azula had decided she'd wanted to try a slice of 'normal'.  
And what is more normal, more mundane, than visiting a tea shop?  
Besides, it's generally accepted that the Jade Dragon is the best tea shop in the Fire Nation - perhaps even the world, although the Jasmine Dragon in Ba Sing Se is also a strong contender. Azula smirks to herself, wondering what the people of Ba Sing Se would think if they knew their beloved tea-maker 'Mushi' was also the same General Iroh who once laid siege to the inner wall.

The tea is divine, living up to its reputation and exceeding Azula's high expectations.  
It's a jasmine tea with subtle hints of rose petal.  
Azula places her cup down on the table and scans the room. She's always been interested in people. What makes them tick? Why do they behave a certain way? Why do they think the way they do? What do they believe, and why?  
_Why would Father turn me into a monster?  
Why wouldn't Mother protect me?  
Why didn't they love me?_  
With Father, it was relatively simple: Azula was a tool to be used, then given an empty title and the illusion of power. Azula had been nothing more than an extension of her father's will, an unknowing slave. Well, maybe not _unknowing_ , per se, but willfully ignorant; the truth was - and still is, most of the time - too painful to confront.  
Father was a monster, an evil man who coveted evil things, and he groomed Azula to be the same: driven, arrogant, merciless. He'd turned her into a monster, and the atrocities she'd carried out in his name were monstrous. He'd turned her into a monster because that made her easier to manipulate.  
But Mother… all her life, Azula had been plagued by many questions about her mother, but they all boiled down to one simple concept:  
_Why?  
Why did she abandon me?  
Why didn't she protect me from Father?  
Why didn't she love me?  
Why?_

The chair across from Azula creaks a protest. A balding old man with white hair and a carefully cultivated beard sits across from her.  
He has the same eyes as her grandfather, as her father. But where her father chose to fill his eyes with greed and malice, this man's eyes are filled with kindness and wisdom.  
"Uncle." Azula acknowledges.  
_Should've known Uncle Iroh would notice me. He's many things, but never a fool._  
"Azula." Uncle Iroh rumbles, his gaze hooded, skeptical, almost accusatory.  
"The tea is nice." Azula states. She feels some of the tension between them ease. But only some.  
"Thank you." Uncle Iroh replies, bowing his head slightly.  
"To what do I owe the pleasure of my niece's visit?" He asks. He's no longer just skeptical. He's intrigued. It doesn't take a genius to see the meaning behind his words: _Why are you here?_  
"I…" Azula pauses, carefully weighing her options and choosing her next words.  
"I wanted to find out what it's like to not be me." _To not be a monster._  
Uncle Iroh's eyes soften. They look sad. There's no pity in them, because Azula hates being pitied. But his gaze is mournful all the same.  
He understands.  
Uncle Iron heaves a tired sigh, fortifies himself with a sip of tea, and rests his arms on the table. 

"My brother made you what he wanted you to be. He is in prison, now, and he cannot hurt you anymore unless _you_ let him. You are young. You have time to make yourself into the person you want to be." Uncle Iron says.  
"You will always be Azula. That will never change. But you can choose who Azula is, and once you truly understand that, once you understand yourself rather than Ozai's monster, you will know freedom and happiness unlike anything you thought possible." 

"And my mother?" Azula asks. _Why did she abandon me?_  
"Ursa is only human. She made mistakes, as did I." Uncle Iroh begins.  
"Your mother was trapped in an abusive relationship with the most powerful madman this world has ever seen. I imagine she felt powerless to protect you from Ozai, and speaking as a former parent, myself, she will take that guilt and pain with her to the grave." _Just like I couldn't protect Liu Ten, your mother couldn't protect you._   
"I, however, could stand up to my brother. I could have protected you. I could have helped you find the person you were meant to be, like I did with Zuko." Unle Iroh continues, and this time, there is no subtext. There is only plain truth, however painful it may be.  
"I could have done all that, but I didn't. I know you can't forgive me yet, and I won't ask you to. I will ask that you forgive your mother and I only when you are truly ready. That hurt is too heavy to carry in your heart forever." 

Uncle Iroh heaves himself to his feet and is about to return to the task of running his tea shop. he pauses, and says in parting, "Enjoy the tea. There's plenty there, and you have a lot to think about." 

For the first time that Azula can ever remember, she thanks her uncle. She thanks him, and means it.  
She takes another sip of her tea and a smile slowly tugs at the corners of her mouth.  
_Uncle Iroh is right._ She thinks, feeling hope for the first time in her life. _I will always be Azula, but I chose who Azula is._


End file.
